Flying

FLYING A GYRO

The Australian Sports Rotorcraft Association's website describes a gyroplane as an aircraft that flies using freely-turned rotor blades.

   Modern gyroplanes have two propellers, one overhead and one behind the cabin, and are light and easily manoeuvrable.

   They are slower than aeroplanes but faster than helicopters.

   However, unlike helicopters, they cannot hover.

• A typical single-seat gyroplane is about 4.25m long and 2.4m high. When empty, it weighs about 230kg.

• Most gyroplanes fly under 920m above ground because most pilots like the scenery at the lower altitudes. Specially modified gyroplanes have gone 6km high.

• The gyroplane is a stable flying platform. This is not so with helicopters, which pull the air down through engine-powered rotor blades making it possible to hover, but also making the aircraft very complicated and expensive to fly.

• Most gyroplanes fly between 70kmh and 100kmh.

• Gyroplanes depend on air currents for flight and can only fly if there is wind.

Slovak's flying car no castle in the air

Designer and engineer Stefan Klein with his car models in Bratislava, Slovakia. The engineer is working on the next model of the Aeromobil, which was tested successfully last year.

BRATISLAVA - Mankind's primordial dream of flight is taking off with a new twist as a Slovak prototype of a flying car spreads its wings.

   Inspired by the books about flying by French authors Jules Verne and Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Slovak engineer Stefan Klein has been honing his flying machine since the early 1990s.

   "I got the idea to start working on a vehicle of the future at university but, honestly, who has not dreamt of flying while being stuck in traffic?" he said.

   "Flying is in my blood - my grandfather and father flew ultra-light aircraft, and I got my pilot's licence before I was old enough to drive a car," and Mr Klein, who has designed cars for BMW, Volkswagen and Audi.

   His elegant blue-and-white vehicle for two is 6m long, so it fits neatly in a parking space and fills up at any petrol station. But once the Aeromobil reaches an airport, it can unfold its wings in seconds, becoming a plane.

   "So far, there have been about 20 attempts to manufacture a flying car around the global," said the president of the Slovak Ultra Light Aviation Federation, Mr Milan Ciba. "Among them, Aeromobil appears very viable."

   Mr Klein piloted the Aeromobil on its first wobbly test flight last September. Once airborne, it can hit a top speed of 200kmh.

   Mr Klein and his team are now working on the next generation of Aeromobil

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE